In 2017, Zheng participated in the work program and created the dance theater production Beyond the Stillness, which was later presented at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing.

"We believe he is talented and promising and we are impressed with his strong creative capabilities and rich expressions, so we commissioned a new project by him," Yang Jialu says.

The CSIAF then recommended the commissioned piece Three Rules of Admonition at the 2023 performing arts trade fair, which led to the show being invited to the Sibiu International Theatre Festival in June.

Three Rules of Admonition is based on a legendary tale from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) about a monk transformed into a tiger and torn between hunger and human emotions.

Zheng's adaptation captures the turbulent flow of the mood in storytelling.

"All my works were born out of my understanding for 'powerful emotional entanglement' and the 'intricate relationship between people' …While I have created my works, they have created me by opening a new door in my life," Zheng said earlier this year, as one of the recommended artists in the 10th anniversary celebration of the program.

He founded the Zheng Jie Dance Theater Company in 2022. "I used to tell my friends that I was like a big boy raised by the CSIAF," he says.

"The festival has witnessed my growth and recorded different phases of my development. It is a colorful platform where birds of the same feather gather. Good artists constantly spark new flames and pump fresh blood to the contemporary art scene of China."

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